San Diego Unified School District is the second largest district in California and serves more than 130,000 students. In order to represent all of them, parents and community members have the opportunity to elect candidates to the district’s Board of Education.
But in recent years, a number of those seats have gone uncontested.
This year, both incumbents Kevin Beiser and Mike McQuary are running unopposed. McQuary also strolled onto the school board uncontested in 2014. School board trustee Richard Barrera, who has been on the board since 2008, has run three times unopposed.
So why aren’t folks stepping up to run against them?
On this week’s San Diego Explained, Voice of San Diego’s Mario Koran and NBC 7’s Monica Dean break down the unusual way San Diego Unified School Board races work and how the process can make it hard find potential candidates.